Simple Rules To Become A Model Minority

With all the recent protests around the country and university campuses about racial injustice, people are forgetting that it is very easy to ingratiate oneself into the mainstream American society. While protestors are busy blaming college administrators and law enforcement for their personal problems, maybe they can take a look in the mirror to see how they can affect some changes in themselves so that these issues don't keep recurring over and over again. To help out the clueless, here are my simple rules for how to become a model minority so that the police don't have to run you down just for walking down the street.

1. Get a good education. This country probably spends more money per pupil than any other country in the world, particularly for inner schools. Yet the test results are abysmal. Maybe if some of the students actually went to school and decided they wanted to learn something instead of harassing the teachers and other students then they can get a decent education.

2. Find and keep a job. Once somebody has an education that is actually at the high school graduation level, jobs surprisingly open up. Even if a good job is hard to find after graduation, just having the certificate makes it easier to apply to college to expand the job market even more. And when you get a job, keep plugging away at it. Don't quit just because you think your boss doesn't like you or you think time spent wandering the streets is more valuable than flipping burgers for $10 per hour. Most working Americans made far less than that in their youths and they still wound up with decent careers and lives. Work experience is valuable beyond the monetary compensation one gets in the biweekly paycheck.

3. Don't get pregnant or get somebody pregnant before marriage. If there is one thing that will keep most women down, it is to get pregnant in high school. Having a baby while trying to study in high school is difficult at best and usually leads to dropping out or suboptimal education. Guys, just don't get your girl pregnant unless you two are married. If you can't commit to a marriage, then you're not ready to commit to another life on this Earth. Walking away from your two minute mistake only shifts the burden of raising an innocent child to the mother and society at large. But if you don't care, then you are a douche bag who probably should have had a vasectomy.

4. Get married and stay married. Again it is about commitment and maturity. Once you are married, stay committed to it. Don't run off just because you had a fight about who spent $5 at Walmart. Don't file for divorce because somebody wanted to watch football while somebody else preferred the Kardashians. Divorce is one of the leading causes of financial insecurity that can afflict a person. It is also extremely detrimental to any children that might be involved. So stay married at all costs. Most arguments in marriages eventually become inconsequential as life goes on. If infidelity is involved, well then the guilty party was not mature enough to have a strong marriage to begin with.

5. Respect authority, such as parents, educators, and law enforcement. Nothing screams immaturity like somebody who thinks they know more than people who have had special training and been around much longer than you. When somebody tells you to sit still, stop talking, stop walking in the middle of the street, there's usually a reason for that. Don't feel like you're too good to follow the rules.

6. Stay off drugs, alcohol, and tobacco. You only have your health. Without it, you have nothing. If you're always in the hospital because you're sick or strung out, then it's unlikely you can keep a good job. Once you lose that, you'll realize how lucky you had it in the first place.

7. Find and nurture good friendships. Keep good friends around who look after your best interests. Don't hang out with people who only like you because you have money or own a nice car. True friendships survive when you are at your lowest point, which inevitably happens to everybody at least once in a lifetime.

8. Save money and spend wisely. It doesn't matter how much money one makes. Save as much of it as possible. And don't spend the money on stupid things like giant screen TV's, the latest cellphones, or drugs and alcohol. It's amazing how little one needs to provide for the basics of food, clothing, and shelter. Once you strip out extraneous costs like cable and cellphone plans, eating out at restaurants, and purchasing new clothes, one might actually be able to save some money.

9. Care about your neighbors. You know all those rundown neighborhoods that plague urban centers? Perhaps if its residents cared more about their blocks then it wouldn't be so poor. Report drug dealers to the police. Help a neighbor clean up a yard. Shop at your local businesses. Don't vandalize, rob, or burn down your neighborhood store just because you think you want to make a statement. It usually leads to businesses leaving for better areas, causing higher local unemployment and more disaffected youth, a downward spiral.

10. Repeat the same rules to the next generation. This process will take a long time. It took decades for Asians to transition from the Yellow Peril to a Model Minority. It will take time for society to notice this change in attitude and climate. But burning down cars and houses will not contribute to any meaningful long term changes.

Notice none of these rules involve any genetic factors involving presumably physical or mental superiority. They also don't require large infusions of money. We've spent trillions of dollars trying to rectify social inequality with hardly any noticeable difference. It does demand that people take a look at themselves and decide how they can change themselves to make their world a better place. As Michael Jackson sang in "Man In The Mirror,"

I'm starting with the man in the mirror,
I'm asking him to change his ways.
And no message could have been any clearer,
If you want to make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself, then make a change.

Asian American Kids And The Piano Recital

It's a rite of passage that virtually every self respecting Asian American kid has to undergo, the musical recital. Whether it be the piano, violin, cello, or some other musical instrument, most AA children take up some sort of musical education as part of the normal childhood process. There is an innate feeling among AA parents that mastering music will make their children smarter and better disciplined. In fact, studies have shown that kids who study music do indeed test better.

But as I sat through another one of my children's piano recitals recently, I can't help but wonder if the education they receive from hours of practicing at the keyboard is the right type that will allow them to succeed in America. As all the parents listen attentively to the children playing studiously on stage, I began to ponder who is the real genius on stage, the seven year old who can master that Mozart sonata or the composer himself?

The fact is, musicians are a dime a dozen. Millions of people know how to play a Mozart sonata. But there is only one Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. These Asian kids were performing the equivalent of an American Idol contestant. They were essentially doing a karaoke the way Idol singers belt out their rendition of a Beatles tune while trying to make it their own. But no matter how good the musician, it's pretty clear the real prodigy is the composer, not the player.

As multitudes of AA parents shepherd their prodigies through piano and violin classes, are we then commoditizing musical proficiency? In the meantime, white American children are encouraged to take the less obvious path, forming their own bands and writing their own music. This is where the real riches lie, not a ten year grind of musical lessons just so they can get into an Ivy League school. By the way, an Ivy League admissions officer would take more notice of an AA applicant if the kid actually formed his own rock band than if he can claim to have played violin all throughout high school.

Is it any wonder that white people don't think Asian Americans have any originality or creativity? We assiduously force our children to play music created by other people while discouraging them from pursuing truly artistic outlets for their developing minds. It is this line of reasoning that leads to recent studies showing AA's are a large portion of the work force in Silicon Valley but dwindle dramatically in the management positions.

To all the AA parents out there. It's okay if your children don't want to take any musical lessons. The path to genius doesn't exclusively involve rote memorization of centuries old dead white Europeans' music.

Obama's Only Middle East Friends Are Terrorists

First Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint session of Congress against President Obama's wishes, deepening a discord between the two countries' formerly friendly relationship.

Now Saudi Arabia's new King Salman has declined to attend a Middle East summit meeting at Camp David with the President due to his coziness with the Iranian regime.

Is it just me, or are people starting to see that President Obama's only Middle Eastern friends are the terrorist sponsoring regime inside Iran? What say you Rush Limbaugh?

Racist Apple Watch Bands

Apple was showing off some new watch bands for its new must have devices in a fashion show in Milan, Italy over the weekend. The bands sported bold colors like red, blue, yellow and various pale pinkish hues described as skin tones.

Unless Apple thinks that having ten different shades of pink is what people are asking for, I'd say those skin tone watch bands are not designed for people of color. Really Apple? You don't think any brown people will want to wear an Apple Watch? All those pinkish watch bands will look a bit ridiculous on 80% of the world's population who are not light skinned. Frankly, even most white people are not that pale, especially on the arms. Unless that person has not seen daylight for months, Caucasians treasure their golden tanned complexion. The only watch band displayed that might be of suitable color for anybody is the dark blue one. It would look great on a Na'vi from the movie Avatar.

LGBTTQQFAGPBDSM? WTH?

I'm confused. Human sexuality was initially taught only as heterosexuality. Man and woman. Adam and Eve. However that wasn't fair to all the homosexuals who were kept in the closet. Then the homosexuals were welcomed out of their hiding places and we proudly cheered our inclusivity. Later bisexuals and transgender were added to the list, or LGBT. Okay. I'm down with that. The more inclusive the better, right? Then a couple of years ago I noticed LGBTQ. Q? I had to google that one. It turns out Q stands for Questioning. In other words they were not sure which category they fit into so they just tagged on another letter. But now the proliferation of letters and lifestyles have expanded to an almost comical degree.

The latest comes from Wesleyan University. In their student website, they offer a safe house for students of LGBTTQQFAGPBDSM persuasion. WTH? I'll save you some time, and so that you don't have to surf over to that site to find out what that means, LGBTTQQFAGPBDSM stands for 

Lesbians

Gay

Bisexual

Transgender

Transsexual 

Queer

Questioning

Flexual

Asexual

Genderfuck

Polyamourous

Bondage/Disciple

Dominance/Submission

Sadism/Masochism

Notice a few of those terms are paired or the acronym would reach an even more ridiculous length. I don't even know what some of those words mean, although sometimes I think my wife is the "A" in that list. I'm afraid to look up some terms on my computer lest I get caught for looking at something illegal on the internet. 

How did human sexuality become so convoluted? Do people really feel better about themselves knowing that there is a category for their feelings? Or does it just make them more anxious that none of the standard definitions fit them quite right and they have to invent one more? 

Perhaps this is one example where too much leniency proves detrimental to the person. Being allowed to do and feel anything they like without a strong supporting base for reference can make anybody feel confused and restless. I'm not saying that people should be ushered back into the closet. But having a sexuality that requires a safe house instead of gaining acceptance is not healthy either.

Medical Schools Also Discriminate Against Asians Americans

Asian American parents have believed for years that Ivy League universities discriminate against their kids for admissions. Black children can score 230 points less than whites on the SAT to gain admission to an Ivy League and Hispanic kids can get by with 185 points less. Meanwhile an AA child needs an SAT score 50 points higher to get into the same school. Consequently there is a thriving after school enrichment program in Los Angeles, specifically the San Gabriel Valley where most of the AA's cluster.

But if AA parents think they can relax once their children make it into an Ivy League, they better think again. The discrimination against AA students continues even into graduate school, or in this case, medical school.

With all the Asian doctors that we see nowadays, all the Indians, Chinese, Koreans, Vietnamese, etc., one would think that medical schools accepted their students based purely on academics. But that is apparently not so. The Association of American Medical Colleges put together this table ranking how likely different ethnicities are accepted into medical school based on the MCAT scores and GPA's. As you can clearly see, an AA premed student with a median MCAT of 27-29 stands only a 22.5% chance of being accepted into med school. A white student has a one in three likelihood of getting in. But if the student is black, he has a greater than 80% chance of being accepted into medical school.

If the AA student makes only the lowest MCAT scores of 24-26, it will be almost impossible for him to get into med school, just a 7.7% chance. But a black person with the same score still has a greater than even chance of being accepted, 65.8%. At the other end of the academic spectrum, an Asian American premed with the top MCAT scores of 30-32 will still only have a nearly even chance of going to medical school, just 63.1%. A black student with the same score is nearly guaranteed to make it, with a 94.6% probability of getting in. In other words, the lowest scoring black student has a better chance of getting into medical school than the highest scoring Asian American student.

Is is any wonder AA parents are worried sick about getting their offspring into good schools? We have to spend thousands of dollars and countless hours in extracurricular studies just to make sure our kids are at least on the same playing field as other kids for college admissions. Meanwhile black and hispanic students can hang out, play video games, and watch movies all they want without worrying about getting into college. Even if they don't do as well academically, the schools are so desperate to achieve "diversity" that they will accept nearly any of them as long as they know how to read and write complete sentences.

Asian Americans have to learn to handle this ugly discrimination early and often. No matter how hard we try to do well, we get penalized by the elitist and racist powers that control our academic futures. In fact, the more we achieve, the greater the discrimination. It appears that we will always be discriminated against here in so called color blind, melting pot America.

Pants Up! Don't Loot!

Black Lives Matter. That's the new mantra following the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner at the hands of police officers in Ferguson, MO and New York, respectively. Yes, black lives do matter. As do all lives well lived. Yet I can't help feeling that the only people who don't think black lives matter at all are the African American victims themselves. In both cases, the victims died because they were in the process of committing an illegal act.

In Mr. Brown's case, it is well established that he committed strong armed robbery stealing cigars at a convenience store minutes before being confronted by Officer Darren Wilson. He then further inflamed the situation by reaching into the police car and assaulting a peace officer while trying to reach for his gun. So no sympathy from many of us who feels he deserved what he got. As for the whole Hands Up Don't Shoot? We now know after the grand jury testimony that that was a lie perpetrated by many unreliable "witnesses." Michael Brown never even tried to give himself up to Officer Wilson but instead attempted to charge and attack him before he was fatally shot.

Mr. Garner was likewise committing a crime when he was brought down by the police. In this case he was trying to sell illegal cigarettes on the streets when he was questioned by officers. He then ran away instead of facing questioning and arrest. His resistance eventually led to him being forcefully subdued. If he had given up peacefully, knowing that he was committing a crime, his own death would have been prevented. Again no tears here.

When the grand juries in both cases heard all the evidence, they rightfully declared the officers innocent. This led to weeks of rioting in Ferguson and marches in New York. Eventually some crazy person felt the need to assassinate two innocent NYPD officers, ironically neither of whom were white, as some sort of political statement.

Again, if black people really believed their lives are important and worth living, then they should be the ones to commit to lead better lives and not follow a life of crime. Blindly taking the advice of racist flamethrowers like Al Sharpton is not going to help them. Blaming the government, white people, schools, police, or any other easy scapegoats is not going to help them. Looting their neighborhood businesses just because they feel wronged is not going to help them.

We already know what can aid the poor and downtrodden become better citizens. This is where the model minority established by Asian Americans can help. I reject the many so called Asian American organizations that claim being labeled a model minority is a form of divisiveness used by a white majority to further suppress black people. Organizations for years have complained that there are no good role models for black people, particularly young black males. That's why President Obama established a group like My Brother's Keeper.

But based on centuries of experience with the integration of immigrants into American society, we already know what needs to be done to help people establish themselves as good citizens. And it does not involve any more government intervention. Stay in school. Study hard. Get good grades. Go to college. Get a good job. Get married and stay married. Don't have kids too early or too often. Don't have children outside of marriage. Follow the law. Obey the police. Asian Americans ARE the model minorities and can be the role models that these lost black males need. But instead of stating the obvious, AA groups confoundedly reject our success as citizens as a wedge between minorities. Echoing the words of Al Sharpton tells you all you need to know about the political bent of these organizations.

In conclusion, I too believe that black lives matter. But marching in the streets, rioting, and looting are not going to make any long term impact. African Americans need to do a little soul searching before they can start making a difference in their own lives. Blasting rap music out of their cars and playing midnight basketball isn't going to help. If they need to find good role models to emulate, just examine the quiet Asian student studying his ass off every night. Instead of derision, he should be the one held up as an example.

Domestic Car Companies Aren't Even Trying In California

Driving home every day I'm constantly reminded by how little American car companies are trying to sell their products here in California. On the radio I constantly here commercials for the imports. Names like Longo Lexus and Toyota, Fletcher Jones Mercedes, Norm Reeves Honda, Beverly Hills BMW are ubiquitous on the airwaves. The American companies? Nada. Other than Galpin Ford and Worthington Ford, I don't ever recall hearing advertisements for the domestics. I can't tell you the names of any GM or Chrysler dealers without having to take ten minutes to really think about it.

If their publicity is bad, the dealerships are worse. In my neighborhood in the South Bay region of Los Angeles, the American dealers look utterly antiquated compared to the imports. Scott Robinson Honda just built a brand new building that takes up half a city block. It is full of light and glass, giving a sense of airiness to the whole facility. Audi also recently opened the largest Audi dealer in the country with a showroom that is easily seen from the busy main street.

What have the American companies done? Here in Torrance, Martin Chevrolet recently upgraded their facade. Whoop dee do. The interior looks exactly as it did thirty years ago. Their new car inventory sits in a tiny corner of the lot that maybe holds twenty cars. About two thirds of their lot are for the used car inventory and service area. Not exactly inviting for anybody seeking a new Chevy.

Penske Cadillac looks like it's trying to hide itself from customers. Its building features glass so dark you can't even see their cars inside. Worse, they have a low wall separating their lot from the public sidewalk. When their cars are parked behind the wall, the fronts of the cars are obscured and you can only see the vehicles from the windshield up. By comparison the South Bay BMW next door is a huge open lot with seemingly acres of BMWs easily seen and envied from every direction.

If the Cadillac dealership design is bad, the Buick/GMC dealership next to it is even worse. Squeezed between the Cadillac and BMW dealers, it is a tiny hangar of a building that is easily missed if you blink on the busy drive up Hawthorne Blvd. I rarely even see any new Buicks on display. Occasionally there are one or two GMC's that are parked up front. I can't think of a worse way to sell a car, especially in a competitive environment like Southern California.

And Chrysler? Is there even a Chrysler dealer in the South Bay? Oh yes. Scott Robinson recently took over the old Chrysler dealer. But as far as I can tell the building is still the same old staid facility and I have heard zero advertising promoting its presence. You would have to search really hard to even know that it exists.

Don't get me wrong. I'm really rooting for the domestics to do a better job here in this state. Strong domestic car companies will produce a stronger national economy. They also have some very compelling new vehicles that are worthy of consideration by anybody, including some of my favorites like the Cadillac CTS Vsport, the Chevy Corvette, the Chevy SS, and GMC Denali. But the car companies can only do so much with product development. Unless their dealers do a better job of making their presence known through better advertisements and they upgrade their dealerships, it is unlikely they will win much marketshare from the imports. They will in essence lose the battle without ever putting up much of a fight.